Vanity and the Vagueries of History

[Spartan Termopylae]

The Rememberence period is quite important to me, and I was thinking of this last night.

It started when I was thinking of how vain someone would had to be to play himself in a film about his own life and exploits. We all remember the Audie Murphys of the world, dazzling acts of heroism. But I'm going to tell you about two heroes that I only heard of because a heavy metal band made songs about them (although said band did also write a song about Audie Murphy).

Corporal Leslie "Bull" Allen, Australian Army. He joined at the start of World War Two as a stretcher bearer and served in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East, and it is for his service in the late that he is chiefly remembered for, being awarded the US Silver Star for saving multiple US servicemen under fire on Mount Tambu. And this is after he already been treated for anxiety neurosis in the desert. From 1943 to 1944, he suffered a deterioration and was medically discharged, at some point temporarily losing the power of speech.

Captain Witold Pilecki, Polish Army. He joined the Polish Army in the aftermath of the Great War, and was serving in the Polish cavalry at the outbreak of WW2. After Poland was conquered, he any many of his comrades continued the fight as partisans, eventually forming the Secret Polish Army. In 1940, the resistance learned of the construction of a camp near Oswiecim, and volunteered to gather information. He was deliberately captured with another 2000 civilians, and transported to this new prison, given the inmate number 4859. He was to spend the next three years gathering intelligence and setting up a resistance group within the camp. He escaped with two other men in 1943, and later participate in the Warsaw Uprising, being captured again and sent to a prison camp in Germany, where he was liberated after the war, when he joined the Polish Army in the West, being opposed to Communism, and he was sent back to Poland to gather information. He was arrested in 1947 on charges of espionage and placed assassinations, among other charges. Other former inmates from the camp in Poland testified against him in what could be considered a kangaroo court run by the communist authorities. He was executed in prison in 1948. He is most well known for what is known as the Witold Report, the report on the camp he infiltrated in 1940, near Oswiecim. A camp known to posterity as Auschwitz. The man speech 3 years in one of the worst places known to man, and was executed by his own people for being on the wrong side of the political divide.


Can anyone tell us about any more forgotten heroes?